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Abstract #3512

Measurement of white matter maturation in the preterm brain using NODDI.

Zach Eaton-Rosen 1 , Andrew Melbourne 1 , Alan Bainbridge 2 , Giles S. Kendall 3 , Nicola J. Robertson 3 , Neil Marlow 3 , and Sebastien Ourselin 1

1 CMIC, UCL, London, United Kingdom, 2 Medical Physics, UCH, London, United Kingdom, 3 Academic Neonatology, EGA UCL Institute for Women's Health, London, United Kingdom

Very preterm infants are more likely to suffer from neurodevelopmental disabilities, associated with white matter damage. Diffusion tensor parameters can infer damage but with limited specificity to the microstructure. We used multi-shell diffusion MR on a longitudinal preterm neonatal cohort to fit the NODDI model and separated diffusion parameters into contributions from orientation dispersion (OD) and from the intra-cellular volume fraction (v ic ). We found that the increasing FA in white matter regions is attributable to an increasing v ic while OD remains constant. This work will help to establish parameterized growth rates in key white matter regions in the preterm brain.

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